7. Religious Involvement And Latino Immigrant Health

There is little research on the relationship between religious involvement, typically measured by church attendance, with the health and health behaviors of Latino immigrants in the United States. This chapter examines the intersection of the three areas: religious involvement, Latino immigrants to the United States, and health outcomes, using quantitative methods with a random national sample of immigrants. The research is theoretically driven, drawing from concepts in the field of sociology, for both social and religious factors, to examine whether religious involvement is associated with health status and health behaviors among Latino immigrants. There are many theories underlying the relationship between religious involvement and health. Potential causal mechanisms of the association between health and participation in religious communities involve multidimensional constructs. In the chapter, key mechanisms are grouped through which religious involvement can impact health into three categories: social resources, social capital magnified, and religious capital. Keywords: health behaviors; Latino immigrants; religious involvement; U.S. population